Thursday, June 12, 2008

Farmers Market Thursday - June 12, 2008

Lettucesgarlic scapesmizunaasparaguslemon sorrel

spring onionssatsoistrawberries

That's our bounty for this week.

So how'd we do with last week's planning? Well, I came into an unexpected windfall of spinach, and spent much of last Thursday and Saturday blanching and freezing. So we've actually done less cooking with spinach than I'd planned to.

Spinach quiche - this will be tonight, and it will actually be a spinach, green onion, asparagus and zucchini quiche.Spinach-Brown Rice Casserole - didn't happen. And for those who asked for it, I will be getting this recipe out to you - it's been a crazy week!Salads of all stripes and forms - absolutely! My salad from yesterday's post, surprise salad, a salad made with spinach, apples, parmigiano reggiano, toasted walnuts and vinaigrette (based on a suggestion by Goofball), spinach and radish salad with vinaigrette and a fried egg on top.Sweet Potatoes baked with spinach and hardboiled eggs (delicious, even if it sounds weird). - Another entry that didn't make it.

What we did have was cornmeal-crusted whitefish on a bed of asparagus and yellow squash (this will be my What's Cooking Wednesday recipe/Cooking for Bri recipe for next week), burgers and grilled asparagus for an early Father's Day meal, and an evening of asparagus/spinach stir fry and hotdogs (yeah, this last menu was more one of convenience).

We picked up some last rhubarb on Saturday, which I froze for later use.

This week's plans:

Vegetable quiche or souffle (see above)the salad and "tortilla" combination from yesterday, and I think I'll make it again when D can share it.strawberry shortcake!strawberry-cornmeal pancakessummer vegetable soupmore glorious salads

Two other interesting notes about the Farmers Market this Wednesday - we now have a knife sharpener who will be there each Wednesday. I'm really excited because I have a santoku and a serrated bread knife that are both in desperate need of sharpening and his prices are reasonable. The second is the addition of John Roos and his coffee roasting business. For those locals who don't know Roos Roast, it's worth your time to get acquainted. His beans are also either all fair trade or direct trade (in the case of direct trade, these are small, family farms working towards Fair Trade certification, but they aren't there yet).

19 comments:

My cooking routine has been completely disrupted this week because I've been darting off to opera rehearsal every evening. Fortunately the madness ends on Sunday with our last performance and I can get back into the swing of things. I would hate for the lovely stuff from my share to go to waste. Luckily my parents are coming for a visit this weekend and I plan on using a lot of spinach in yet another brunch fritatta. I'm saving the strawberries for Sunday brunch as well. :)

We love Roos Roast. It's the only coffee we drink at home any more. We have attended the two coffee classes he did at the Chelsea Gallery. He's such a character!

Wow you sure make inspiring posts. You inspire me to try to be more creative with vegetables. And yet I feel that I can never make such great meals as I am by myself half of the week. One piece of lettuce seriously lasts a week with me alone. One quiche lasts 2 days....

Salads are fantastic on the condition that you combine a lot of ingredients together to keep it interesting. But then you need to buy all of those vegetables and then I have way too much of everything (seriously you can't buy one tomato, 4 asparagus strings, ... and salads are not something you can freeze). I struggle each week to eat everything before it turns bad. Jan usually cooks one or two big meals in the weekend and I finish the left-overs on weekdays :p. But as a result I don't eat such great varieties of vegetables at all.

Secondly: I love salads (when they carry enough variety)...but each single time I am hungry very quickly afterwards. Last days I ate a lettuce/tomato/grean beens salad with pieces of octupus which I had fried in Indian herbs. Yummy and filling at the moment itself and 90 minutes later I crave for something else. Same thing at work: if I eat a salad at lunch in the cantine I can hardly finish it. But at 4 PM I am looking for instant soup or something as I am starving again. I can only eat a salad if it holds a big portion of potatoes and meat.

He is, Sarah - he's a great guy! My cooking was disrupted this week, too, between C's finals, and trying to get him ready for camp and the umpteen-thousand end-of-school-year events! I hope the performances go well, and I wish I could see you, but I'm swamped, as you can probably tell!

LOL, Teri. And yes, I'm all for men cooking!

Goofball, I need protein at lunch. I find I'm really grouchy if I don't have it. BUT... I can throw nuts or beans or cheese, etc., into the salads and that works. The single cooking thing is tough. Then I tend to make soups or stir fries/egg scrambles, because I can use lots and lots of veggies in those. I agree about salad issues in terms of salad veggies going bad quickly.

What great ideas & gorgeous photos! I'm always a little disappointed not to find all this treasure in my refrigerator afterwards. Sometime, I'd be interested in hearing more about your techniques for freezing & storing (and later restoring) produce and prepared foods. My results have always been kind of lackluster on that front...

Patti, mine totally isn't. I just do the food things on Wed. and Thurs. The rest of the time I get on soapboxes or am just plain silly. ;-) BTW... there's a blogging for education event on June 20th. I'll write you about it.

Anno, just as I'll be disappointed when you all have your garden fully up and running, and I'll be growing deer and nothing else! I found a great book, the 4th edition of PUTTING FOOD BY, by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg and Beatrice Vaughan. Even though the canning section terrified me, they have everything you could possibly want to know about freezing, as well. It's a great book.

Jenn - just as I drooled during your mid-winter times. Aren't other things growing in the summer, though, or is it slim pickings in FL this time of year?

Your bounty looks wonderful! Our farmer's market turned out to be a dud, again. There were a few more vendors...a bread lady (yum!) but still it was mostly crafters. I'm just going to have to sign up for that CSA this week so I can get veges. We missed planting time because of gymnastics scheudle and all the snow in March and April, so our personal garden is iffy on the veges.

Ah! I love it when I come back home from the Farmer's market and I get that same spread over my kitchen table! Everything is saying bite me!!!Your veggies and fruits spread looks gourgeous and the menu plan so healthy and delicious :D

Amy, it sounds like your market may be starting to catch on, even if it's slow. Last year we had a new market start on Thursday afternoons in the parking lot of a local restaurant: Zingermans Roadhouse (www.zingermans.com). It was slow going at first, and then more vendors came. It will happen!

Nuria, thanks so much for the warm words - your recipes are a great inspiration to use what's available and be healthy!

Jenn - I'd be absolutely delighted to! ;-)

Sarabeth - I know you're taking a bit of a break - thanks so much for stopping by! I'm DELIGHTED that I inspired you to get out to the market. That's what I'm trying to do here. Go local everything!

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